Chapter 671 Tainted Elf

Chapter 671 Tainted Elf

"Ciela... is alive?"

As Rey uttered those words, looking at Kara's slightly stunned face, he realized he never actually thought about the fate that befell Esme's mother.

He never considered the implication of her being alive either—until now.

"Tell me more about this." His exhaustion instantly vanished, and the pale expression on his face brightened up instantly.

He led Kara into his abode, closing the door behind them as he listened to her explaining how she was able to piece it all together.

Talking to the Elders, narrowing it down by speaking to the Esteemed Ones, her investigation was very thorough. Still, even though Rey was very impressed that she could get such cooperation out of the Elves and pry into so much information, he wasn't really interested in her methodology

All that was relevant was the actual information on Ciela.

"You said they have her captive, right? Tell me more about that." Rey sat on his chair, opposite his bed where he told her to sit.

"W-well... yeah. In a secret chamber where only the Esteemed Elders have access to."

"And she's alive."

"Well... yeah. But it's not that simple." As soon as Rey heard this, he raised his brow and made a complicated face.

Kara took this as her queue to explain further.

"The Elves placed her in a state of Eternal Sleep. That is the highest punishment they can give to one of their own—forcing them to sleep until their life runs out and they die."

Since Elves had a no-kill Rule, they couldn't eliminate even their most severe offenders. However, by placing the perpetrators in a state akin to death, allowing nature to run its course over them, they had their own form of execution.

"So, she's not fully dead... but she's not really alive either..." Rey mumbled to himself, his fingers stroking his chin as a certain image flashed into his mind.

'Reminds me of Alicia. Did they use some kind of Curse, or is it just Magic...?' He couldn't determine that on his own.

"I see. Well, I better hear all of this from the horse's mouth." Closing his eyes and controlling his breath, Rey spread his senses beyond the confines of his immediate surroundings.

Her arm was stuck in, up to her elbow, and her legs suffered the same fate, leaving her knees upward exposed.

A part of her hair was also sucked in, but everything else was exposed.

Rey could see all of it—from her bare chest, to her slender, malnutritioned body, to the long ears she possessed, and every aspect of her body.

'So this is why they didn't want me to see you, Ciela.' Yes, the one before him was an Elf... but she was one unlike anything he had seen in this world.

For one, her entire skin was ebony, having a slightly darker tint than Trisha's. Her hair, which must have been previously white, was now pitch black. Her ears seemed much longer than a normal Elf's, and that was pretty much the visible difference that existed between her and the others.

'A Dark Elf, huh? So this is what it means to be tainted...'

The scent coming off her was moldy, and even Rey could feel bitterness—along with a hint of sourness—ooze out of her.

He reckoned she must have smelled really nice at some point.

'If I ignore the tan and malnutrition... she really does resemble Esme—especially the Esme that I first met back when she was to be sold as a slave.'

They were so similar that Rey was thankful this one had a darker skin-tone. Else, their images would overlap perfectly with each other.

He took a few steps closer to the sleeping Elf, his eyes fixated on her every feature until he was mere inches from her.

Then, he touched her face and felt its roughness.

'She's been here for over sixteen years. According to the Elders, it'll take a few more decades before she finally dies off due to malnutrition and Mana deprivation.'

Regular Elves would have died at this point, but thanks to the heritage that Ciela had—the same one within Esme—she was more tenacious than other Elves.

And it was due to that very same identity of hers that she was being punished now.

"You became tainted after killing, and abandoning your duties as The Oracle's heir. Now, you suffer here forever..." As he whispered this, something inside him began to clench.

He felt a spark rising within him.

'I want to change that somehow!'